Monday, May 25, 2009

The Price of Freedom

Friend Margie is retired military, and today she forwarded a newsletter she received from an Army friend that has been in Afghanistan since last summer. I asked Margie if it would be ok to share part of the newsletter as this Memorial Day comes to a close.

When we arrived back in Kabul on Wednesday afternoon, we learned that two members of the staff were killed when an IED exploded on the road to Baghram just after 8 a.m. Shawn Pine was an MPRI mentor who had volunteered to do some CID training for our legal guys in August. He was so excited about it and had already started working on the project. He had two young sons. Shawn was in the vehicle with 1LT Roz Schulte, an Air Force Academy graduate who was 25. She was a beautiful young lady from near St. Louis with an amazing smile and a heart of gold. She was with us at the Norweigian police compound last week, and I'm attaching a few photos of her to put yet another face to the cost of war. The one I took of her as we were gearing up to return to Eggers that night will stay with me forever. The US flag will remain at half-mast at Eggers through Memorial Day on Monday, when we will have their Fallen Comrade ceremony together with the Memorial Day ceremony. It will be a difficult day here, as well as everywhere hearts gather to remember all those that have served our great nation and paid the greatest price for our freedoms.

The photo of LT Schulte accompanied the newsletter. This link will take you to a story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about her death and the many tributes paid her by those who served with her. One of those tributes included this sentence, which pretty much says it all: Her sacrifice will never be forgotten and can never be repaid.

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